By now, many of you have probably heard of the recent scandal and San Diego University. The FBI just busted several players earlier this week for being involved in a point shaving scandal. The worst part of this is that one of the players involed was the school's all-time leader scorer, Brandon Johnson, who was a senior during the 09-10 school year. Johnson, along with former and current teammates and an assistant coach, all face up to a $250,000 fine and/or up to 5 years in jail. It is also important to note that San Diego is not to be confused with San Diego State, a 2 seed in this last tournament. However, as recently as 2007 they shocked Uconn in the first round, so San Diego State has indeed has recent prominence.
While the scandal was occuring, there was also an illegal drug investigation going on. In fact, the FBI was alreayd investigating the program for drug use when the point shaving started 2 in the winter of 2009-2010, so the investigation was fairly. However, this scandal has left the program in ruins and has tarnished the reputation of San Diego for years to come.
As Stephen Levitt point out in his wonderful book, Freakonomics, cheating to lose a game is the worst kind of cheating, and often draws the most ire from fans. This scandal is no exception, and many fans and officials are furious. The team shaved as many as 10 points off games, and many games were fixed. If there is a birghtside, however, it lies in the shock of this event occuring in this era. These scandals almost never happen in college basketball, and the fact that even a small school like San Digeo was caught so quickly shows how good our game's security has become. Rare scandals like this are always quickly busted, and as fans we can assure that we are witnessing a clean game every night.
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